Yeah, This is Illegal

Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks and candidate for the worst person on the face of the earth, has announced that his coffee chain will be raising wages, but not for unionized stores or stores will be holding a union vote.

This is pretty blatantly illegal, and he really should be frog marched out of company headquarters in handcuffs.  (I know, I overuse the phrase.)

Specifically, the National Labor Relations Act forbids retaliation against employees for unionization efforts:

Starbucks announced Tuesday that it was raising pay and expanding training at corporate-owned locations in the United States. But it said the changes would not apply to the recently unionized stores, or to stores that may be in the process of unionizing, such as those where workers have filed a petition for a union election.

………

The initiative was announced as the union has won initial votes at more than 50 Starbucks stores, including several this week.

………

In a formal charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the union representing the newly unionized Starbucks workers — Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union — has accused the company of coercing employees who were voting in a union election by suggesting that it would withhold new benefits if they unionized.

The company said it was legally prohibited from unilaterally imposing wage and benefit increases in stores where employees have unionized or will soon vote on unionization. It noted that it must bargain with a union over any wage or benefit changes.

But labor law experts said that it could be illegal to withhold wages and benefits from only unionized employees or employees voting on a union.

Matthew Bodie, a former lawyer for the labor board who teaches law at Saint Louis University, said the announced pay increases could unlawfully taint the so-called laboratory conditions that are supposed to prevail during a union election by giving employees an incentive not to unionize.

“If Starbucks said, ‘Drop the union campaign and you’ll get this wage increase and better benefits,’ that’d clearly be illegal,” Mr. Bodie said by email. “Hard to see how this is that much different in practice.”

This behavior will not end until we start holding executives criminally responsible.